THE BARNABAS STRATEGY: When you pray-The Lord’s Prayer (Part 5).

We live in a broken world with broken people who continually mess up, to put it lightly. I should know. I’m one of them. One of the great challenges and true blessings of the Christian faith is having a merciful way to deal with all that brokenness…

It’s time to discuss a critical aspect or the Lord’s Prayer (and life in general), forgiveness. Forgiveness is a very personal issue with many disturbing questions: Why should I forgive someone who has clearly harmed me? How can I truly forgive others if I can’t forgive myself? How can God forgive me with what I have done? We must sort through all this for the sake of our hearts and souls since receiving forgiveness is directly linked to offering the same to others— and forgive us our debts (trespasses), as we also have forgiven our debtors (trespassers) (Mat 6:12).

Like love, forgiveness begins within believers to build redemptive communities. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he replied,  …“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mat 22:37-40, ESV, emphasis mine). Similarly, forgiving our neighbor is tied to forgiving ourselves.

I was raised in a guilt-based environment at home and in church. The only sermon I remember from childhood was a tour of hell. Years later in seminary, we were to read and respond to an historic sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I wrote that this was a typical sermon in my childhood experience of church… no big deal. But, it was a big deal. I was so defeated and beaten down in my youth that I didn’t believe I could be forgiven, much less forgive myself or others. Overcoming this guilt-based, judgment generating lie has been a lifelong struggle. Now, I believe I am the forgiven son of a merciful loving Father, and that the divine forgiveness I receive must be passed on to my neighbor. It is an important part of the law of love which keeps my heart from hardening.

Love holds no grudge.

True forgiveness is not mouthing empty words. It flows out of a loving heart. Part of loving your neighbor as yourself is forgiving your neighbor as yourself (see dependence referenced in Mat 22:40). This is a safeguard against the injuries and pain of a broken world hardening our hearts. Hardened hearts cause some people to reject God along with the divine offers of forgiveness and salvation. It’s like slamming a door in God’s face. And, hardened hearts largely contribute to our cruel and broken world. Therefore, true forgiveness based in love is critical and irreplaceable, especially in communities of faith. Even if we can’t manage to find the love in our hearts to forgive our neighbors in the moment, we can use our love for God as the basis for the beginning of forgiveness. The prayer may look like this:

“Father, right now I can’t find the love in my heart for my neighbor necessary for true forgiveness. But, I forgive them as I am able out of my love for you. Help me to love and forgive them as you have loved and forgiven me; so, I can be faithful to Jesus’ teaching on prayer, “and forgive us our debts (trespasses), as we also have forgiven our debtors (trespassers)”” (Mat 6:12). Amen.

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Mic 7:19, ESV).

The Barnabas Strategy is an initiative of the Holy Spirit free of institutional constraints. … Ron Bellomy